Captain Cook in Whitby

The Young James Cook: Training and Sailing

Captain Cook’s training as a seaman began in Whitby. He was born on 27 October 1728 at Marton-in-Cleveland. His father, originally from Scotland, was also called James and married Grace Pace from Cleveland. They had eight children.

When James was still a child, his father moved to Great Ayton, a few miles away near the Cleveland Hills, and became the foreman at Aireyholme Farm.

Here the young James received a basic education at the village school and assisted his father on the farm. In 1745, he began work in a general dealer’s shop at Staithes, a fishing village a short distance from the busy port of Whitby.

However, he decided that he wanted to go to sea, and was introduced to the Walker family.

John Walker and his brother Henry were Quaker shipowners engaged in the coal trade between the North-East and London. The Quakers, or Society of Friends, were upright, hospitable people known for their simplicity of manners and public spirit.

The young Cook could not have come to a better environment. Whitby was a thriving, shipbuilding centre. The Walkers’ ships were workaday collier barks known as ‘cats’, sailing to London and across the North Sea. Cook began the life of a sailor on Freelove in February 1747, carrying a cargo of coal to London.

According to long-standing Whitby tradition, Walker lodged Cook when he was not at sea, in the house in Grape Lane which is now the Museum.

After three voyages in Freelove, Cook took part in fitting out Walker’s new ship, the Three Brothers. Signing on after his apprenticeship had ended, he remained on that ship until 1752, apart from a voyage to the Baltic and St. Petersburg in the Mary. In 1752 he became mate and joined Walker’s latest ship, the Friendship, sailing in her for three years. By 1755 Cook was an experienced and trusted seaman, and Walker offered him the command of the ship.

But Cook had other plans -

For the next stage of Cook's career, see the Royal Navy and Canada